For most people, looking at tables of numbers is not intuitive; complicated data can often be displayed and interpreted more easily in a visual format

Pro Tips: When to use a table, figure, or text?
Ask yourself: How can you best convey the information you want your reader to know?
- Use a table:
- To show many numerical values or other data in a small space
- To compare and contrast values or characteristics among related items
- To show the presence or absence of specific characteristics
- Use a figure
- To summarize research results (graphs)
- To show trends, patterns, and relationships between data when the exact numerical value is not important
- To present a visual representation of physical results (images)
Pro Tips: When to use a table, figure, or text?
Ask yourself: How can you best convey the information you want your reader to know?
- Use a table:
- To show many numerical values or other data in a small space
- To compare and contrast values or characteristics among related items
- To show the presence or absence of specific characteristics
- Use a figure
- To summarize research results (graphs)
- To show trends, patterns, and relationships between data when the exact numerical value is not important
- To present a visual representation of physical results (images)
- Use text:
- When you don’t have extensive or complicated data
- When the data that you are presenting is peripheral to the main point
How to use figures and tables in a narrative review?
- All of your capstone papers should have tables/figures
- you will also convert your paper to a (mostly) visual format: the poster
- How can figures be used in a review paper?
- To introduce your topic or provide important background
- For example: organism, cell type, disease, molecular pathway, etc.
- To show a key piece of data from a primary paper (graph or image)
- To summarize data from multiple experiments
- Conceptual diagram that summarizes the results of multiple experiments
- To present a proposed model or experimental approach










Considerations for use of tables and figures
- Ensure that visual elements are self-contained.
- readers should understand a figure or table based solely on the visuals and legend.**
- Use clear, informative captions
- concisely describe the purpose or contents of the figure
- uses to highlight key information in it
- Refer but don’t repeat!!!
- Use the text to draw the reader’s attention to the key points of the table or figure.
- highlight your main finding but don’t repeat exact values
- “Campany et al. (2021) found that the treatment was completely effective in only 24% of cases” versus “As Table 2 in Campany et al. (2021) shows, 32% of subjects improved but relapsed, 24% eliminated the infection, 45% showed no improvement, etc.”
- Be consistent. Ensure that values and abbreviations in the text match the table/figure
Citing other authors tables and figures
- Tables and figures taken from other sources are numbered and presented in the same format as your original tables and figures.
- You must properly cite a reference if you use data or figure, in whole or part
- just like citing someone’s text
- For the capstone, include a note at the end of your figure legend detailing the source of the figure:
- ‘[Adapted] From Figure 1 of Campany (2021).’
- if reproducing a figure exactly, start the note with “From….” If you have changed it for your own purposes (i.e. taken part of a figure), write “Adapted from…”
- Be sure to include a full citation in your References section

Pro Tip: Creating publication quality figures
- Maximize the space given to the presentation of data e.g. make points and lines easy to see
- Be smart with color
- do you really need it?
- use color-blind friendly palettes
- use white backgrounds
- Minimum resolution of 300 dpi
- options are aviable for different formats (jpg, pdf, tif, png)
